The time has come yet again to purge our warehouse of items we have too many of, or that need to be replaced for 2016! And as always, our loss is your project's gain. We have a huge variety of Actobotics parts, boards, sensors, and cables, along with a huge quantity of odds and ends at the lowest prices we've offered – over 300 products in all will be available for your next project. The sale runs today, 12/30/2015, to 11:59pm MT on 1/13/2016.
We're still afraid the machines may rise up, so we want them out of the building. (Photo courtesy of brainlesstales.com)
So I see this sale, and selected some small parts that looked like a good deal. They're small, maybe a few ounces worth, and the order total was $6.65
Now I need to ship them, and the cheapest you can do is UPS for $13??
Ouch. I'm sure you could stick these in a bubble envelope (your cost > $1) and ship it USPS for a few dollars.
Sparkfun is not selling auto-body parts or lawn care equipment. You're selling electronic parts, and most of them are tiny and light.
Please consider expanding your shipping options.
Thanks.
Life's mystery #2? Why is it you're charging $13 to send a few small parts from Colorado to California, and the dudes on Ebay can ship a circuit board to me from China for $3. This makes no sense.
The short answer is volume. The prices you see for shipping are actually the website sending quote requests to UPS/USPS/FEDEX and them sending back quotes based on our accounts with them. While the price you see is going to be cheaper than you walking up to your local office, we don't have the volume of Amazon or Ebay to negotiate rock bottom prices. We also try to use more reputable and secure shipping methods. All in all we'd love to be able to drop shipping prices, but do charge our customers what we are quoted for the shipping.
Why wasn't USPS even listed as an option? I (with no volume at all) can ship a 6oz "Large Envelope" to you (zip 80503) 3-Day Priority mail for $5.54, or First Class for $3.14.
These are reasonable shipping costs. $13 or more from Fed Ex or UPS is not.
Questions about a specific order and the pricing should probably be directed to our customer service department. Please send them an email at cservice@sparkfun.com and they should be able to trouble shoot any issues that may have come up with your order (including shipping prices).
Did you mean ends on 12/31 instead of 12/13 ?
Unfortunately no. The sale will only last until just before our annual Inventory Day. Thanks for asking!
Inventory Day? I thought you stopped doing that years ago.
LOL Barnacle Brothers sale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRfULOJVXGQ
So... it ends 2 weeks ago?
Oh I'm picking up what you're putting down. We just didn't want 2015 to end!